Mechanical optical switches are used in optical systems to switch a light beam between an input fiber and one or more output fibers. For example, mechanical optical switches are used in optical communication systems to connect and disconnect transmission paths to route light beams modulated with information. Mechanical optical switches also can be used to pulse a light source, e.g., a laser, or perform other functions with modulated or unmodulated light beams.
One type of mechanical optical switch is a 1×2 optical switch, which provides optical switching between one input port and two output ports. It is known that 1×2 optical switches using refractive optics are very reliable, have small insertion loss, and are easy to manufacture. An example of a 1×2 optical switch is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,215,919 to Li et al., the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. The 1×2 optical switch has been used widely in the telecommunications industry, such as for protection switching and tag switching. The 1×2 optical switch also has been used to build larger dimension switches, such as 1×4 and 1×8 optical switches. In some cases, application designers need to integrate multiple 1×2 optical switches together to reduce power consumption and/or physical space used.